St. Valentine’s Day Massacre - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com St. Valentine’s Day Massacre St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Author St. Valentine’s Day Massacre URL A+E Networks Introduction Gang warfare ruled the streets of Chicago during the late 1920s, as chief gangster Al Capone sought to consolidate control by eliminating his rivals in the illegal trades of bootlegging, gambling and prostitution. This rash of gang violence reached its bloody climax in a garage on the city’s North Side on February 14, 1929, when seven men associated with the Irish gangster George “Bugs” Moran, one of Capone’s longtime enemies, were shot to death by several men dressed as policemen. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it was known, was never officially linked to Capone, but he was generally considered to have been responsible for the murders. Google The Rise of Scarface From 1924 to 1930, the city of Chicago gained a widespread reputation for lawlessness and violence.

Not coincidentally, this phenomenon coincided with the reign of chief crime lord Al “Scarface” Capone, who took over from his boss Johnny Torrio in 1925. (Torrio, who was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in 1924, had “retired” to Brooklyn.) Prohibition , ushered in by the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1920, had greatly increased the earnings of America’s gangsters through bootlegging (the illegal manufacture and sale of alcohol) and speakeasies (illicit drinking establishments), as well as gambling and prostitution. Capone’s income from these activities was estimated at some $60 million a year; his net worth in 1927 was around $100 million. Did You Know? George "Bugs" Moran was on his way to the garage in Chicago at the time of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre; he missed getting killed by minutes.

A few days later, he told reporters "Only Capone kills like that." Reached at his Florida home for comment on the murders, Capone offered his own opinion: "The only man who kills like that is Bugs Moran." Over the years, Capone consolidated control over most of Chicago’s crime rackets by ruthlessly gunning down his rivals. In 1924, authorities counted some 16 gang-related murders; this brand of continued until 1929, reaching a high of 64 murders in one year during that time. Federal authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had much less jurisdiction than they have today, and did not include Chicago’s gang-related activity. Massacre on St. Valentine’s Day Chicago’s gang war reached its bloody climax in the so-called St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929. One of Capone’s longtime enemies, the Irish gangster George “Bugs” Moran, ran his bootlegging operations out of a garage on the North Side of Chicago. On February 14, seven members of Moran’s operation were gunned down while standing lined up, facing the wall of the garage. Some 70 rounds of ammunition were fired.

When police officers from Chicago’s 36th District arrived, they found one gang member, Frank Gusenberg, barely alive. In the few minutes before he died, they pressed him to reveal what had happened, but Gusenberg wouldn’t talk. Police could find only a few eyewitnesses, but eventually concluded that gunmen dressed as police officers had entered the garage and pretended to be arresting the men. Though Moran and others immediately blamed the massacre on Capone’s gang, the famous gangster himself claimed to have been at his home in Florida at the time. No one was ever brought to trial for the murders. The Downfall of Public Enemy No. 1 Though the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre marked the end of any significant gang opposition to Capone’s rule in Chicago, it can also be said to have marked the beginning of his downfall. With his highly effective organization, his impressive income and his willingness to ruthlessly eliminate his rivals, Capone had become the country’s most notorious gangster, and the newspapers dubbed him “Public Enemy No. 1.” Federal authorities began investigating Capone after he failed to appear before a federal grand jury after being subpoenaed in March 1929.

When he finally appeared and testified, federal agents arrested him for contempt of court. Capone posted bond and was released, only to be arrested in Philadelphia that May on charges of carrying concealed weapons. Capone served nine months in prison and was released for good behavior. In February 1931, a federal court found Capone guilty on the contempt charge and sentenced him to six months in Cook County Jail. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department had launched an investigation of Capone for income tax evasion. Through diligent forensic accounting, Special Agent Frank Wilson and other members of the Intelligence Unit of the Internal Revenue Service were able to put together a case, and in June 1931 Capone was indicted for evasion of federal income tax. Convicted that October after an internationally publicized trial, Capone was sentenced to 11 years in prison, first in Atlanta and later at Alcatraz . He was released in 1939 and died an invalid recluse at his Florida home in 1947. Tags THE ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE The legendary S-M-C Cartage Co. at 2122 North Clark Street in Chicago.

For a city that is so filled with the history of crime, there has been little preservation of the landmarks that were once so important to the legend of the mob in Chicago. Gone are the landmarks like the Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone kept the fifth floor suite and used the place as his headquarters. But most tragic, at least to crime buffs, was the destruction of the warehouse that was located at 2122 North Clark Street. It was here, on Valentine's Day 1929, that the most spectacular mob hit in gangland history took place..... the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The bloody events of February 14, 1929 began nearly five years before with the murder of Dion O’Banion, the leader of Chicago’s north side mob. At that time, control of bootleg liquor in the city raged back and forth between the North Siders, run by O’Banion, and the south side Outfit, which was controlled by Johnny Torrio and his henchman, Al Capone. In November 1924, Torrio ordered the assassination of O’Banion and started an all-out war in the city.

The North Siders retaliated soon afterward and nearly killed Torrio outside of his home. This brush with death led to him leaving the city and turning over operations to Capone, who was almost killed himself in September 1926. The following month, Capone shooters assassinated Hymie Weiss, who had been running the north side mob after the death of O’Banion. His murder left the operation in the hands of George “Bugs” Moran, a long-time enemy of Capone. For the most part, Moran stood alone against the Capone mob, since most of his allies had succumbed in the fighting. He continued to taunt his powerful enemy and looked for ways to destroy him. In early 1929, Moran sided with Joe Aiello in another attack against Capone. He and Aiello reportedly gunned down Pasquillano Lolordo, one of Capone’s men, and Capone vowed that he would have him wiped out on February 14. He was living on his estate outside of Miami at the time and put in a call to Chicago. Capone had a very special “valentine” that we wanted delivered to Moran.

Visit Our Sponsor & Find a variety of gangster costumes for this Halloween at Gangster Costumes . For the Complete Story of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Beer Wars in Chicago & Al Capone, see Troy Taylor's Dead Men Do Tell Tales Series! Dead Men Do Tell Tales Bloody Chicago Weird Chicago Al Capone Through a contact in Detroit, Capone arranged for someone to call Moran and tell him that a special shipment of hijacked whiskey was going to be delivered to one of Moran’s garages on the north side. Adam Heyer, a friend of Moran, owned the garage and it was used as a distribution point for north side liquor. A sign on the front of the building at 2122 North Clark Street read “S-M-C Cartage Co. Shipping - Packing - Long Distance Hauling”. Moran received the call at the garage on the morning of February 13 and he arranged to be there to meet the truck the next day. On the morning of February 14, a group of Moran’s men gathered at the Clark Street garage. One of the men was Johnny May, an ex-safecracker who had been hired by Moran as an auto mechanic.

He was working on a truck that morning, with his dog, a German Shepherd named Highball, tied to the bumper. In addition, six other men waited for the truck of hijacked whiskey to arrive. The men were Frank and Pete Gusenberg, who were supposed to meet Moran and pick up two empty trucks to drive to Detroit and pick up smuggled Canadian whiskey; James Clark, Moran's brother-in-law; Adam Heyer; Al Weinshank; and Reinhardt Schwimmer, a young optometrist who had befriended Moran and hung around the liquor warehouse just for the thrill of rubbing shoulders with gangsters. George "Bugs" Moran George Moran was already late for the morning meeting. He was due to arrive at 10:30 but didn't even leave for the rendezvous, in the company of Willie Marks and Ted Newberry, until several minutes after that. As the seven men waited inside of the warehouse, they had no idea that a police car had pulled up outside, or that Moran had spotted the car as he was driving south on Clark Street and rather than deal with what he believed was a shakedown, stopped at the next corner for a cup of coffee.

Five men got out of the police car, two of them in uniforms and three in civilian clothing. They entered the building and a few moments later, the clatter of machine gun fire broke the stillness of the snowy morning. Soon after, five figures emerged and they drove away. May's dog, inside of the warehouse, began barking and howling. The landlady in the next building, Mrs. Jeanette Landesman, was bothered by the sound of the dog and she sent one of her boarders, C.L. McAllister, to the garage to see what was going on. He came outside two minutes later, his face a pale white color. He ran frantically up the stairs to beg Mrs. Landesman to call the police. He cried that the garage was full of dead men! The police were quickly summoned and on entering the garage, were stunned by the carnage. Moran's men had been lined up against the rear wall of the garage and had been sprayed with machine-guns. Pete Gusenberg had died kneeling, slumped over a chair.

James Clark had fallen on his face with half of his head blown away and Heyer, Schwimmer, Weinshank and May were thrown lifeless onto their backs. Only one of the men survived the slaughter and he lived for only a few hours. Frank Gusenberg had crawled from the blood-sprayed wall where he had fallen and dragged himself into the middle of the dirty floor. He was rushed to the Alexian Brothers Hospital, barely hanging on. Police sergeant Clarence Sweeney, who had grown up on the same street as Gusenberg, leaned down close to Frank and asked who had shot him. “No one --- nobody shot me,” he groaned and he died later that night. The death toll of the massacre stood at seven but the killers had missed Moran. When the police contacted him later and told him what had happened at the garage, he “raved like a madman”. To the newspapers, Moran targeted Capone as ordering the hit. The authorities claimed to be baffled though, since Capone was in Florida at the time of the massacre. When he was asked to comment on the news, Capone stated, "the only man who kills like that is Bugs Moran".

At the same time, Moran was proclaiming that "only Capone kills guys like that". And Moran was undoubtedly right. The murders broke the power of the north side gang and while there have been many claims as to who the actual shooters were that day, most likely they included John Scalise, Albert Anselmi and "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, all of whom were some of Capone's most trusted men. All three men, along with Joseph Guinta, were arrested but McGurn had an alibi and Scalise and Guinta were killed before they could be tried. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre marked the end of any significant gang opposition to Capone but it was also the act that finally began the decline of Capone’s criminal empire. He had just gone too far and the authorities, and even Capone's adoring public, were ready to put an end to the bootleg wars. Perhaps the strangest bit of history in regards to the massacre involved the fact that Capone had not seen the last of one of the men killed on that fateful day.

In May 1929, Capone slipped out of town to avoid the heat that was still coming down from the massacre and to avoid being suspected in the deaths of several of the men believed responsible for the killing of the Moran gang. While in Philadelphia, he and his bodyguard, Frankie Rio, were picked up on charges of carrying concealed weapons and were sentenced to a year in prison. They eventually ended up in the Eastern State Penitentiary. Capone continued to conduct business from prison. He was given a private cell and allowed to make long-distance telephone calls from the warden’s office and to meet with his lawyers and with Frank Nitti, Jake Guzik and his brother, Ralph, all of whom made frequent trips to Philadelphia. He was released two months early on good behavior and when he returned to Chicago, he found himself branded “Public Enemy Number One”. It was while he was incarcerated in Pennsylvania that Capone first began to be haunted by the ghost of James Clark, one of the massacre victims and the brother-in-law of George Moran. While in prison, other inmates reported that they could hear Capone screaming in his cell, begging “Jimmy” to go away and leave him alone.

After Capone returned to Chicago, he took up residence at the Lexington Hotel and while here, would report his most frequent encounters with the ghost. While living at the Lexington Hotel, there were many times when Capone’s men would hear from begging for the specter to leave him in peace. On several occasions, bodyguards broke into his rooms, fearing that someone had gotten to their boss. Capone would then tell them of Clark’s ghost. Whether the ghost was real or not, Capone certainly believed that he was. The crime boss even went so far as to contact a psychic named Alice Britt to get rid of Clark’s angry spirit. Not long after a sï¿½ance was conducted to try and rid Capone of the vengeful spirit, Hymie Cornish, Capone’s personal valet also believed that he saw the ghost. He entered the lounge of Capone’s apartment and spotted a tall man standing near the window. He demanded to know the man’s identity but the shadowy figure slipped behind a curtain and out of sight. Cornish immediately summoned two of his employer’s bodyguards but a search of the room revealed there was no one there but Al Capone, who continued to insist the figure had been Jimmy Clark.

Years later, Capone would also insist that Jimmy Clark followed him to the grave. Canadian George Patey with bricks from the wall of the garage where the massacre took place Chicago, in its own style, memorialized the warehouse on Clark Street. The place became a tourist attraction and the newspapers even printed the photos of the corpses upside-down so that readers would not have to turn their papers around to identify the bodies. In 1949, the front portion of the S-M-G Garage was turned into an antique furniture storage business by a couple who had no idea of the building's bloody past. They soon found that the place was visited much more by tourists and curiosity-seekers than by customers and eventually closed the business. In 1967, the building was demolished. However, the bricks from the bullet-marked rear wall were purchased and saved by a Canadian businessman. In 1972, he opened a night club with a Roaring 20's theme and rebuilt the wall, for some strange reason, in the men's restroom. Three nights each week, women were allowed to peek inside at this macabre attraction. One of the bricks from the massacre, authenticated to be from the wall where the murders occurred.

Over the years, other bricks have turned up that were allegedly taken from the warehouse. According to stories, they are cursed! The club continued to operate for a few years and when it closed the owner placed the 417 bricks into storage. He then offered them for sale with a written account of the massacre. He sold the bricks for $1000 each, but soon found that he was getting back as many as he sold. It seemed that anyone who bought one of the bricks was suddenly stricken with bad luck in the form of illness, financial ruin, divorce and even death. According to the stories, the bricks themselves had somehow been infested with the powerful negative energy of the massacre! Whatever became of the rest of the bricks is unknown. Or that's what the legend says.... In recent years, other bricks have emerged that claim to have come from the wall. These were not bricks purchased from Patey but were smuggled out of the lot by construction workers and curiosity-seekers. It was said that from these bricks come the legends of misfortune and bad luck. Are these bricks authentic? The owners say they are -- but you'll have to judge for yourself!

Whatever the legend of the bricks themselves and whether or not they have somehow been "haunted" by what happened, there is little doubt about the site on Clark Street itself. Even today, people walking along the street at night have reported the sounds of screams and machine guns as they pass the site. The building is long gone but the area is marked as a fenced-off lawn that belongs to the nearby nursing home. Five trees are scattered along the place in a line and the one in the middle marks the location where the rear wall once stood. Passerby often report these strange sounds and the indescribable feeling of fear as they walk past. Those who are accompanied by dogs report their share of strangeness too.... Animals appear to be especially bothered by this piece of lawn, sometimes barking and howling, sometimes whining in fear. Their sense of what happened here many years ago seems to be much greater than our own. Crime, Valentines day massacre and Girls on Pinterest Forward Crime: Al Capone is Americas best known criminal.

He is most notorious for the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre where two out of four of Capone's men were dressed as police and shot down 7 rival gang member, who had put there guns down thinking it was a police raid. Al Capone had an alibi; he was in Florida during the massacre. See More The Life and Crimes of Al Capone Updated February 29, 2016. Who Was Al Capone? Al Capone was a notorious gangster who ran an organized crime syndicate in Chicago during the 1920s, taking advantage of the era of Prohibition . Capone, who was both charming and charitable as well as powerful and vicious, became an iconic figure of the successful American gangster. Dates: January 17, 1899 -- January 25, 1947 Also Known As: Alphonse Capone, Scarface Al Capone's Childhood Al Capone was the fourth of nine children born to Gabriele and Teresina (Teresa) Capone. Although Capone's parents had emigrated from Italy, Al Capone grew up in Brooklyn, New York . From all known accounts, Capone's childhood was a normal one.

His father was a barber and his mother stayed home with the children. They were a tight-knit Italian family who were trying to succeed in their new country. Like many immigrant families at the time, the Capone children often dropped out of school early to help earn money for the family. Al Capone stayed in school until he was 14 and then left to take a number of odd jobs. continue reading below our video The St. Valentine's Day Massacre Around the same time, Capone joined a street gang called the South Brooklyn Rippers and then later the Five Points Juniors. These were groups of teenagers who roamed the streets, protected their turf from rival gangs, and sometimes carried out petty crimes like stealing cigarettes. Scarface It was through the Five Points gang that Al Capone came to the attention of brutal New York mobster Frankie Yale. In 1917, 18-year-old Al Capone went to work for Yale at the Harvard Inn as a bartender and as a waiter and bouncer when needed. Capone watched and learned as Yale used violence to maintain control over his empire. One day while working at the Harvard Inn, Capone saw a man and woman sitting at a table.

After his initial advances were ignored, Capone went up to the good-looking woman and whispered in her ear, "Honey, you have a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment." The man with her was her brother, Frank Gallucio. Defending his sister's honor, Gallucio punched Capone. However, Capone didn't let it end there; he decided to fight back. Gallucio then took out a knife and slashed at Capone's face, managing to cut Capone's left cheek three times (one of which cut Capone from ear to mouth). The scars left from this attack led to Capone's nickname of "Scarface," a name he personally hated. Family Life Not long after this attack, Al Capone met Mary ("Mae") Coughlin, who was pretty, blonde, middle-class, and came from a respectable Irish family. A few months after they started dating, Mae became pregnant. Al Capone and Mae got married on December 30, 1918, three weeks after their son (Albert Francis Capone, a.k.a. "Sonny") was born. Sonny was to remain Capone's only child.

Throughout the rest of his life, Al Capone kept his family and his business interests completely separate. Capone was a doting father and husband, taking great care in keeping his family safe, cared for, and out of the spotlight. However, despite his love for his family, Capone did have a number of mistresses over the years. Plus, unknown to him at the time, Capone contracted syphilis from a prostitute before he met Mae. Since the symptoms of syphilis can disappear quickly, Capone had no idea that he still had the sexually transmitted disease or that it would so greatly affect his health in later years. Capone Moves to Chicago About 1920, Capone left the East Coast and headed to Chicago. He was looking for a fresh start working for Chicago crime boss Johnny Torrio. Unlike Yale who used violence to run his racket, Torrio was a sophisticated gentleman who preferred cooperation and negotiation to rule his crime organization. Capone was to learn a lot from Torrio. Capone started out in Chicago as a manager for the Four Deuces, a place where clients could drink and gamble downstairs or visit prostitutes upstairs. Capone did well in this position and worked hard to earn Torrio's respect.

Soon Torrio had increasingly important jobs for Capone and by 1922 Capone had risen up the ranks in Torrio's organization. When William E. Dever, an honest man, took over as Chicago's mayor in 1923, Torrio decided to avoid the mayor's attempts to curb crime by moving his headquarters to the Chicago suburb of Cicero. It was Capone who made this happen. Capone established speakeasies, brothels, and gambling joints. Capone also worked diligently to get all the important city officials on his payroll. It didn't take long for Capone to "own" Cicero. Capone had more than proven his worth to Torrio and it wasn't long before Torrio handed over the entire organization to Capone. Capone Becomes Crime Boss Following the November 1924 murder of Dion O'Banion (an associate of Torrio and Capone's who had become untrustworthy), Torrio and Capone were seriously hunted by one of O'Banion's vengeful friends. Fearing for his life, Capone drastically upgraded everything about his personal safety, including surrounding himself with bodyguards and ordering a bulletproof Cadillac sedan.

Torrio, on the other hand, did not greatly change his routine and on January 12, 1925 was savagely attacked just outside his home. Nearly killed, Torrio decided to retire and hand his entire organization over to Capone in March 1925. Capone had learned well from Torrio and soon proved himself to be an extremely successful crime boss. Capone as a Celebrity Gangster Al Capone, only 26-years old, was now in charge of a very large crime organization that included brothels, nightclubs, dance halls, race tracks, gambling establishments, restaurants, speakeasies, breweries, and distilleries. As a major crime boss in Chicago, Capone put himself in the public's eye. Capone was an outlandish character. He dressed in colorful suits, wore a white fedora hat, proudly displayed his 11.5 carat diamond pinky ring, and would often pull out his huge roll of bills while out in public places. It was hard not to notice Al Capone. Capone was also known for his generosity.

He would frequently tip a waiter $100, had standing orders in Cicero to hand out coal and clothes to the needy during the cold winters, and opened some of the first soup kitchens during the Great Depression . There were also numerous stories of how Capone would personally help out when he heard a hard-luck story, such as a woman considering turning to prostitution to help her family or a young kid who couldn't go to college because of the high cost of tuition. Capone was so generous to the average citizen that some even considered him a modern-day Robin Hood. Capone the Killer As much as the average citizen considered Capone to be a generous benefactor and local celebrity, Capone was also a cold-blooded killer. Although the exact numbers will never be known, it is believed that Capone personally murdered dozens of people and ordered the killing of hundreds of others. One such example of Capone handling things personally occurred in the spring of 1929. Capone had learned that three of his associates planned to betray him, so he invited all three to a huge banquet. After the three unsuspecting men had eaten heartily and drank their fill, Capone's bodyguards quickly tied them to their chairs.

Capone then picked up a baseball bat and began hitting them, breaking bone after bone. When Capone was done with them, the three men were shot in the head and their bodies dumped out of town. The most famous example of a hit believed to be ordered by Capone was the February 14, 1929 assassination now called the St. Valentine's Day Massacre . On that day, Capone's henchman "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn attempted to lure rival crime leader George "Bugs" Moran into a garage and kill him. The ruse was actually quite elaborate and would have been completely successful if Moran hadn't been running a few minutes late. Still, seven of Moran's top men were gunned down in that garage. Tax Evasion Despite committing murder and other crimes for years, it was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre that brought Capone to the attention of the federal government. When President Herbert Hoover learned about Capone, Hoover personally pushed for Capone's arrest. The federal government had a two-pronged attack plan. One part of the plan included collecting evidence of Prohibition violations as well as shutting down Capone's illegal businesses.

Treasury agent Eliot Ness and his group of "Untouchables" were to enact this part of the plan by frequently raiding Capone's breweries and speakeasies. The forced shut down, plus the confiscation of all that was found, severely hurt Capone's business -- and his pride. The second part of the government's plan was to find evidence of Capone not paying taxes on his massive income. Capone had been careful over the years to run his businesses with cash only or through third parties. However, the IRS found an incriminating ledger and some witnesses who were able to testify against Capone. On October 6, 1931, Capone was brought to trial. He was charged with 22 counts of tax evasion and 5,000 violations of the Volstead Act (the main Prohibition law). The first trial focused only on the tax evasion charges. On October 17, Capone was found guilty of only five of the 22 tax evasion charges.

The judge, not wanting Capone to get off easily, sentenced Capone to 11 years in prison, $50,000 in fines, and court costs totalling $30,000. Capone was completely shocked. He had thought he could bribe the jury and get away with these charges just like he had dozens of others. He had no idea that this was to be the end of his reign as crime boss. He was only 32 years old. Capone Goes to Alcatraz When most high ranking gangsters went to prison, they usually bribed the warden and prison guards in order to make their stay behind bars plush with amenities. Capone was not that lucky. The government wanted to make an example of him. After his appeal was denied, Capone was taken to the Atlanta Penitentiary in Georgia on May 4, 1932. When rumors leaked out that Capone had been receiving special treatment there, he was chosen to be one of the first inmates at the new maximum security prison at Alcatraz in San Francisco. When Capone arrived at Alcatraz in August 1934, he became prisoner number 85.

There were no bribes and no amenities at Alcatraz. Capone was in a new prison with the most violent of criminals, many of whom wanted to challenge the tough gangster from Chicago. However, just as daily life became more brutal for him, his body began to suffer from the long-term effects of syphilis. Over the next several years, Capone began to grow increasingly disoriented, experienced convulsions, slurred speech, and a shuffling walk. His mind quickly deteriorated. After spending four-and-a-half years at Alcatraz, Capone was transferred on January 6, 1939 to a hospital at the Federal Correctional Institution in Los Angeles. A few months after that Capone was transferred to a penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. On November 16, 1939, Capone was paroled. Retirement and Death Capone had tertiary syphilis and it wasn't something that could be healed. However, Capone's wife, Mae, took him to a number of different doctors. Despite many novel attempts at a cure, Capone's mind continued to degenerate.

Capone spent his remaining years in quiet retirement at his estate in Miami, Florida while his health slowly got worse. On January 19, 1947, Capone suffered a stroke. After developing pneumonia, Capone died on January 25, 1947 of cardiac arrest at age 48. Who Was Dean O’Banion & How Did He Get Killed? - NationalCrimeSyndicate Who Was Dean O’Banion & How Did He Get Killed? by Hayley Timmins Dean O’Banion was the son of an Irish immigrant, Charles O’Banion, He was born on July 8th 1892 in Maroa Illinois, in 1901 Dean’s mother Emma died from tuberculosis and Charles Sr relocated with his sons to Chicago, his father was a painter by trade and raised his sons within a district in Chicago called Kilbubbin, it was known as Little hell because of it’s high crime and unemployment rates. Dean attended the Holy Name Parochial School and served as an alter boy at the Catholic Holy Name Cathedral.

Dean O’Banion was a member of the Little Hell Gang, the youth branch of the Market Streeters, The Market Streeters were a gang of shoplifters and muggers who sold the Chicago Tribune a local newspaper anyone who refused to sell the newspaper because the target of the gangs assaults and vandalism, Dean was a member of the youth branch of The Market Streeters. Through the gang, he met the three teenagers Earl ‘Hymie’ Weiss , Vincent ‘the Schemer’ Drucci and George ‘Bugs’ Moran, Who would become his lifelong friends. Earl ‘Hymie’ Weiss, Vincent ‘the Schemer’ Drucci and George ‘Bugs’ Moran Throughout his life, Dean always displayed a wild sense of humour. In his days as a Little Hell gangster, he enjoyed riding on the back bumper of the street cars. On one occasion, a car he was sitting on suddenly stalled and then rolled backwards. Dean was thrown to the ground and the car ran him over. In hospital, doctors were convinced that the unconscious boy would die, but he survived. However, his left leg was an inch shorter than before, and he walked with a limp for the rest of his life.

In 1909, O’Banion was arrested by a night watchman, he was caught stealing postage stamps from a drug store. This resulted in his first criminal conviction and he served a 3-month sentence in a house of correction. He then served a short prison sentence in 1911 for assault with a blackjack as his choice of weapon, he was also caught with possession of deadly weapons. This was the last prison sentence he ever received. In 1920, O’Banion started a bootlegging operation. He made arrangements for beer suppliers in Canada to start shipments immediately, and also struck deals with whiskey and gin distributors. On February 5 1921, Dean married 18 year-old Viola Kaniff. At the Holy Name Cathedral on North State Street, they brought an apartment at 3600 North Pine Grove Avenue which at the time was one of Chicago’s more upmarket areas. According to his wife, he was a loyal and caring husband who never left home without telling her where he was going.

He also made the effort to get a legitimate job, possibly so that his criminal operations didn’t seem so noticeable, he brought half share in Schofields Flower Shop at 738 North State Street, Dean, who had a passion for flower arranging, worked long hours in the shop and often brought a bouquet home to his wife. O’Banion married Viola Kaniff O’Banion pioneered Chicago’s first liquor hijacking on December 19, 1921. he spotted a truck on a whisky delivery round. The truck halted at a stop sign and O’Banion opportunistically drew his gun and jumped into the cab, pushing the driver out. He drove the truck to Morton’s garage and made a few phone calls. Within 20 minutes, the whisky was sold. The O’Banion mob, known as the North Side Gang, now ruled the North Side and the Gold Coast, the wealthy area of Chicago situated on the northern lake-front. As O’Banion’s name grew in the underworld, he attracted more followers, including, Louis ‘Three Gun’ Alterie, Samuel “Nails” Morton, and Dan “Handsome” McCarthy.

That first Heist with the whiskey hijacking got O’Banion into trouble. The biggest booze supplier at the time was Johnny Torrio, who had just taken over “Big Jim” Colosimo’s Outfit and set up the new Chicago Crime Syndicate, a partnership between the main gang leaders in Chicago. Torrio and his lieutenant Al Capone met with O’Banion and Weiss to discuss the robberies. Torrio asked O’Banion to join the crime syndicate, which meant that O’Banion and the other syndicate members would have to respect each other’s territories and properties. As leader of the syndicate, Torrio received a portion of the profits from the other gangs, but in order to keep the peace, he was willing to make an exception in the case of the Northsiders. O’Banion agreed to join and to consolidate their new partnership, the two sides exchanged shares in each other’s businesses. Torrio got shares in some of O’Banion’s breweries, including 50% of the Sieben Brewery. In return, O’Banion was brought in on some distilleries and gambling dens belonging to the Torrio Outfit.

Big Jim Colosimo, Al Capone and Johnny Torrio North v South Chicago: The Battle for Power For a while, The North and South called a truce but it didn’t last long, O’Banion scammed Torrio out of half a million dollars, and so Torrio retaliated. The city had become a gold mine for the South Siders and O’Banion wanted a cut of it. To placate him, Torrio granted O’Banion some of Cicero’s beer rights and a quarter-interest in a casino called The Ship. O’Banion then convinced a number of his `liqor and drinking clubs and shops in other Chicago territories to move to his strip in Cicero. This move had the potential to start a bootleg war. Torrio attempted to convince O’Banion to abandon his plan in exchange for some South Side brothel proceeds. O’Banion angrily refused, as he abhorred prostitution. Meanwhile, the Genna Brothers who consisted of six Sicilian born brothers, who controlled Little Italy west of Chicago’s down town region, began marketing their whiskey in the North Side, this was O’Banion’s territory.

O’Banion complained about the Gennas to Torrio, but Torrio did nothing. The Genna Brothers February 1924 was the start of the process which leaded to O’Banions and Torrios truce to be extinguished, O’ Banion moved against his South Side rivals by unsuccessfully trying to frame Torrio and Capone for the murder of North Side hanger-on John Duffy. Finally for In May, 1924, O’Banion learned that the police were planning to raid The Sieben Brewery, a place O’Banion and Torrio held large stakes within. Before the raid, O’Banion approached Torrio and told him he wanted to sell his share in the brewery, claiming that the Gennas scared him and he wanted to leave the rackets, obviously that was not the case, however, Torrio agreed to buy O’Banion’s share and gave him half a million dollars. On the night of O’Banion’s last shipment, the police swept into the brewery. O’Banion, Torrio, and numerous South Side gangsters were arrested. O’Banion got off easily because, unlike Torrio, he had no previous prohibition related arrests.

Torrio had to bail out himself and six other associates, and later court charges with the possibility of jail time. O’Banion also refused to return the money Torrio had given him in the deal. Torrio soon realized he had been double-crossed. He had lost the brewery, $500,000 in cash, been indicted, and been humiliated, this was the nail in the coffin and Torrio finally agreed to the Gennas’ earlier demand to kill O’Banion. The Assassination On November the 3rd 1924 O’Banion sat in with Al Capone and other notorious bosses Frank Nitti, Frank Rio and others to tally the week’s profits. It was mentioned that Angelo Genna had dropped a large amount of cash, plus a sizeable marker. Capone recommended that they cancel the marker as a professional courtesy. O’Banion, instead, got Genna on the telephone and demanded that he pay his debt within a week.

With this personal insult, Angelo Genna and his family could no longer be restrained, O Banion ha inadvertently signed his own death warrant Frankie Yale, and other gangsters visited Schofield’s, O’Banion’s flower shop, to discuss floral arrangements. However, the real purpose of these visits was to memorize the store layout for the hit on O’Banion. The Exterior and Interior of Schofields Flower Shop On the evening of November 9, he got a special order by telephone for a custom wreath to be picked up the following morning. On the morning of November 10, 1924, O’Banion was clipping chrysanthemums in Schofield’s back room. Unfortunately for O’Banion, Louis Alterie, his bodyguard is hung over and does not make it to the flower shop that morning. Yale entered the shop with Torrio and Capone’s gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. “Hello, boys” greeted O’Banion, “You from Mike Merlo’s?” The man in the middle, Yale nodded and returned O’Banions handshake in a clasped death grip.

At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi fired two bullets into O’Banion’s chest, two in his cheeks, and two in his throat. Frankie Yale, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi Dean O’Banion died instantly. Dean O’Banion Dead The Aftermath

Question: In an act that became known as the St. Valentine's Day massacre, what Chicago crime boss had 6 rivals gunned down in the back of a garage?
Answer: Al Capone